Return to the Future
by Doctor McFly
Summary: Episode Seven: Marty finds himself back in Hill Valley in the year 2015, but things aren't the way he remembers, and trouble is hiding around the corner. TBC in Episode Eight: Hit the Road Jack!
1. Courthouse Square

(Welcome to my episodic crossover fic. This is episode seven, and while you can start reading here, you might want to visit my profile to get the whole story with Episode One: Frozen in Time)

Back to the Doctor

Return to the Future Part 1

Sunday

June 28th

2015

The TARDIS was making its familiar computerized wheezing noise as it moved through time and space to their next destination. They had both decided it was a good idea to check out the information the robot had given them, both of them aware it could be a trap. Still, they had to move forward and this was a far more solid lead than abstract destinations written on a 100-year-old letter (depending on your understanding of the space/time continuum).

As Marty contemplated what they would find in the future Hill Valley, there was a beeping noise and the Doctor checked one of the monitors on the consol.

"What's wrong?" Marty was wondering if it was a more promising update on Jennifer.

"Nothing," but the Doctor did look a little concerned. "I just need to send an email."

"A what mail?"

The Doctor smiled. "You know, it's quire refreshing meeting a human teenager who _doesn't_ know what an email is."

"Yeah, I bet it's way more refreshing that meeting a condescending alien," Marty rolled his eyes.

The TARDIS went quiet as it settled at its destination.

"Nous some arrives," the Doctor smiled.

"Huh?"

"We've arrived."

Marty looked down at his jeans and red shirt and remembered the insane fashion he had worn in order to blend in the last time he had travelled to 2015.

"Shouldn't we change?" He looked the Doctor's blue suit over. "I hear two ties are all the rage."

"Don't be silly, we look perfectly reasonable for this time and place. You really do try and find any excuse to play dress-up, don't you?"

"It isn't dress-up," Marty grumbled as the Doctor walked past him to open the TARDIS door. "They're disguises."

The Doctor stepped out into the sunny afternoon and Marty followed, and found himself standing in the city square.

"Hill Valley, 30 years in your future." The Doctor smiled back at Marty, and Marty looked around the town with much the same expression he had on his face when the Doctor had shown him the TARDIS for the first time: unimpressed. But it was more than that; he almost looked… disappointed.

Marty stared at the familiar clock tower and city-square. There was no doubt that this wasn't 1985. The parking lot in front of the clock tower from his time had been reverted into a green park, and the storefronts were mostly different.

"This isn't 2015," Marty eyed the cars driving around the square.

"Of course it is!"

"Well you've been wrong before."

"All right," he walked up to a man who was passing by. "Excuse me sir, do you mind telling my companion here what year it is."

The man narrowed his eyes, wondering if this was some sort of joke. "2015," he quickly replied and kept on walking, not wanting to get dragged into whatever was going on between the two men.

"But…" Marty was at a loss. "Where are the flying cars? The hover-boards? The 3-D movies?"

"Ah, well you're in luck," the Doctor pulled out a black pair of plastic glasses with clear lenses and put them on with a grin on his face. "We've arrived at the tail-end of the 3-D renaissance, as it were."

"Those look like normal glasses."

The Doctor pointed to the frames. "Do normal glasses say 3-D on them?"

"Doc, you don't understand. It's not like the future isn't living up to my expectations, I've been here before – it was one of the times I went to with the Doc. Even Jennifer came here, and this was _not_ the future we saw."

"Hm," the Doctor took off the glasses and put them back into his pocket. "And did something you saw here change anything you did in your time?"

"Well…" Marty didn't even know where to begin. "Sort of."

"Time is a very fragile thing."

"No kidding," Marty looked around some more. This 2015 looked so similar to 1985 that he couldn't help but be disappointed. Stylistically everything was different, cars were smoother and fashion had certainly taken a left turn – though he had to admit that he did pretty much fit in with jeans and a t-shirt.

"It's the butterfly effect."

"Sorry?"

"You change one small detail and that in turns changes some other small details and so on and so on until – 30 years later – nothing is the same."

"Well it looks like I changed things for the worse and set technology back about 20 years."

"Don't worry, earth will get its hover cars eventually."

"Gee, finally I'm at ease.

"Excellent, then we need to get a move on."

"A move on where?"

"They should have received my email a week ago."

"Who received your what-mail?"

"UNIT. Specifically their director, Martha Jones."

**To Be Continued…**

(Once again I'm being a little cheeky with the episode title, I was making a little homage to titles like Return of the King and Return of the Jedi – which was also an homage to RotK – and of course I just wanted to play with the title Back to the Future. The chapter title seems obvious, but it's actually the name of the back-lot where Hill Valley was filmed. Seeing that I'm writing this so close to 2015 I had a lot of fun with portraying the future "accurately" and finding a plausible explanation as to why Marty keeps seeing different futures. Really, once you consider that anyone can go to the past and change the course of the future, it's perfectly reasonable that just seeing the future would be enough for Marty to change it in some way – which we already know he does at the end of the third film. It's maybe worth mentioning here, as promised last episode, what's up with the whole Marty loves to dress up bit. While on my little break I hit on the idea that, well, Marty seems to really enjoy getting into period costumes. Watch those movies again, it's not just Doc Brown suggesting he try to fit in, Marty genuinely likes getting into "character." It seemed like a big character trait, because you can't help but conclude that some part of Marty can really only process these events as some sort of game, as though the seriousness of the situations he's in would just snap him like a twig.)


	2. UNIT

Back to the Doctor

Return to the Future Part 2

"So…" Marty sat on the wooden bench in the town square next to the Doctor, awkwardly looking around, as though someone from his present and their past might walk by. The Doctor seemed content to watch the people going by. "Are you going to explain who UNIT and this Martha Jones are?"

"No need, she can do all the explaining herself."

Marty looked at the bright blue TARDIS next to them. "They have something to do with that mail business though, don't they?"

"She's a friend," the word sounded slightly strained when he said it. "She used to travel with me, sort of like this."

Marty briefly thought about River and smiled to himself. "Is this Martha more like your usual carry-on luggage?"

"Hello Doctor," a young black man, most likely in his late twenties, was suddenly standing next to the bench, staring at the Doctor with a look of annoyance. "I thought maybe I'd gotten rid of you for good this time."

He was British, though his accent wasn't the prim and proper one he was used to hearing in movies, but something much grittier, like he was from the streets. From the look of his buzz-cut, stiff posture and straight black suit and shirt Marty thought he might be military or special forces. The only splash of colour anywhere on him was the bright blue tie he wore. He looked so stern that Marty almost thought he was some sort of threat to them.

Then a woman stepped from behind the Doctor and gave him a sheepish smile. She wore a black suit as well, but her face was so kind and glad to see the Doctor he knew who she was instinctively.

"Martha Jones," the Doctor grinned widely as he stood up and grabbed her in an embrace.

"Hi…" Marty awkwardly got to his feet and held his hand out to the man as the Doctor and Martha hugged for a few seconds longer than was usually considered appropriate. "I'm Marty."

"The name's Mickey Smith," Mickey took his hand. "You travelling with the Doctor?"

"Until he helps me with this problem I've been having."

"Problem?" Mickey briefly glanced at the still hugging couple.

"Yeah, killer time-travelling robots."

"Cybermen?"

Marty remembered the decaying robot they found underneath the Last Marketplace. "I guess there are a few time-travelling killer robots. Uh, we're looking for different ones."

Martha and the Doctor finally pulled apart and Mickey quickly stepped in between them, looking up at the Doctor with a stern face.

"Don't think we'll jump every time you call. The only reason we're here is because we've been watching this company."

"Who are you guys? MI-5?" Marty couldn't help but feel like he was in a James Bond movie all of the sudden. Secret agencies, corrupt business, a trio of out of place British people in suits…

"Ha, hardly," Mickey turned towards Marty and for the first time he realized just how much this Brit was strutting around like he was far more important than he really was, and when he saw the way Martha was giving the Doctor a sideways glance, he began to understand why he might be. "MI-5 is kids stuff. We run the American division of UNIT."

"You work with the UN or something?"

"Or something."

"Let's go somewhere a little less conspicuous, shall we?" Martha finally piped in, and the four of them turned to the TARDIS. "Just for old times sake?"

Even Mickey managed a smile.

"My TARDIS is your TARDIS," the Doctor walked over and opened the door for them.

OOO

"I have to admit, I didn't think I'd see you again," Martha sat on the cushioned bench in the TARDIS as the Doctor leaned against the consol facing her. She realized she was having a hard time looking him in the eyes.

"To be honest, I hadn't planned on it. I was searching for leads about this Morton Robotics Company, when I found your open file. You red-lighted them the second they opened their doors. Why?"

"Their company just appeared overnight," Mickey stepped forward, trying to take control of the situation. "Their CEO never worked for any company before, never filed a tax return, has no record anywhere in our system – and we can't locate him."

"It's got fraud written all over it," Martha finished.

"UNIT isn't called in because of tax evasion – or fraud," the Doctor narrowed his eyes.

"No, we got involved when the FBI found this," Mickey pulled a folded manila envelope out of his inside jacket and handed it to the Doctor.

He quickly opened it and found papers inside which he started reading.

"What is it?" Marty asked, feeling slightly left out of the loop.

"Employees?" The Doctor guessed. It was a list of names, along with addresses and social insurance numbers.

"Former employees of Torchwood," Mickey nodded, "headhunted and hired by Morton Robotics. They're collecting research scientists."

"Scientists who specialize robotics."

"Is that why you're interested in them? Because of these robots you're tracking down?"

"If anything, they're tracking us – all of us, and anyone else who's travelled through time."

"Well you don't have to worry about us Doctor," Mickey put his hand on Martha's shoulder. "I think at this point it would take a hell of a lot more than robots to slow us down."

"They don't slow you down, they freeze you in time," Marty muttered in annoyance. He was getting tired of whatever game these three were playing, he wanted to finish what he came to do.

"These robots are tracking down time travellers. So far we've only encountered them on Earth, but I've seen nothing that's led me to believe they wouldn't be able to travel off-planet if they wanted to."

"What do they want with time travellers?" Martha asked.

"Their time energy."

OOO

The Doctor pulled back the blanket to reveal Jennifer's face, still frozen in that horrible scream. Marty had to look away as Martha gave a small gasp and covered her mouth.

"Is she dead?" Martha immediately climbed down and crouched next to the young girl, checking her vitals. She looked awkwardly towards Marty and then quickly back to the Doctor. "I'm not getting anything."

"Well you wouldn't, her vitals are as frozen as the rest of her."

Martha looked at the wires connected to Jennifer. "You've hooked her up to the time vortex?"

The Doctor smiled. "Clever. Have I ever mentioned that I miss having you around?"

Mickey cleared his throat. "This is all well and good, but even those Torchwood scientists wouldn't be able to master time travel."

"Why not? His doctor did it 30 years ago," the Doctor pointed towards Marty.

"_Your_ Doctor?" Martha looked at Marty.

"Doc Brown, he's a scientist I knew – know."

"Not…" Martha eyed the Doctor "… one of yours?"

"No, no, perfectly human, or so I'm told. The point is, a concept some scientist stumbled onto in 1985 probably isn't that far out of reach for a major corporation."

"Wait a minute," Mickey looked at Marty incredulously. "You and some scientist discovered time travel in the 80s? Why the hell haven't I heard about this? Or anyone else for that matter?"

"It's not like we published," Marty replied sarcastically. "We've been too busy, you know, time travelling since he did it."

"We can't find their factory," Martha shrugged, "if they have one."

"Then we go to the main company," the Doctor smiled, happy with his plan.

"And what exactly are you planning to do?" Mickey crossed his arms. "Print out fake IDs? That could take some time."

"Or we could use his psychic paper," Martha grinned. "Why go out of our way to get something the Doctor just carries in his pocket?"

**To Be Continued…**

(Some of you might remember my poll – which is now finished – on what characters you'd like to see appear in this story. Mickey Smith: zero votes when I started writing this, though right before I closed it he got one. Mickey, god knows why, is one of my favourite characters. He just never fails to amuse. While the original intention was just to have Martha in this episode, the second I remembered their rather sudden marriage I knew I could have a lot of fun with this – even if only one person did want him here! I'm not trying to suggest he dislikes the Doctor in this chapter. I think Mickey's gotten over that a long time ago, but when two women you've loved have been in love with the Doctor – one before and one after Mickey was in the picture – I feel its slightly understandable that the Doctor make him slightly… insecure.)


	3. Morton Robotics

Back to the Doctor

Return to the Future Part 3

"Shouldn't we wait until tomorrow? When, you know, they're actually open?" Marty asked, fixing his red tie. He didn't think it would be a good idea to be the only person without a suit. Mickey had helped him find something passable in the wardrobe.

"It'll be easier with less people asking us why we're here."

"Yeah but… why are we here? I mean, what are we supposed to do?"

"Find information," Martha said. "For now."

They reached the front entrance to the Morton Robotics Company. Two large glass doors met them, locked. The Doctor waved his psychic paper over the card scanner and with a click the doors opened and they entered the lobby. A security guard looked up at them with a nod.

"Sign in," he stood up and handed them a clipboard with a pen.

Martha took it and quickly wrote down four false names. A Sunday security guard probably wasn't going to do any background checks on them. By the time anyone started asking questions they would be long gone.

They went into the elevator and stared at the buttons.

"What floor?" Marty asked.

The Doctor crouched down and started prying open a panel, then with a scan of his sonic screwdriver he looked up at them.

"There's a lab in the basement, we should probably go there, as well as the CEO's office on the top floor."

"We should split up, to cover more ground," Mickey suggested.

"All right," the Doctor stood up. "Martha and I will go to the lab, you two check out the office."

"I think I should go with you," Mickey said quickly. "You'll probably need more help down there."

Marty sighed. "I'll be fine by myself."

"Here," the Doctor handed him his screwdriver. "Take this. It's more useful than Mickey anyway."

"Watch it," Mickey warned.

Marty rolled his eyes and got out of the elevator. "Meet me back at the square, okay?"

"See you in an hour then," the Doctor smiled and the doors closed.

Marty quickly jumped onto the next elevator and pushed the top floor button. Nothing happened and Marty saw another card reader. He changed the setting on the screwdriver and scanned the controls until pushing the button finally started moving the elevator.

"This _is_ a handy little tool," he grinned as he shoved it into his pocket. Was there any technology it could get around? Probably not, he realized.

After a minute of anticipation the elevator doors finally opened and Marty found himself in an atrium, with a high ceiling and large glass windows taking up the entire right and left side of the wall. There was an empty receptionists desk in front of him, and behind that a door he figured must have led to the CEO's office.

The door to the office was locked, but the sonic screwdriver soon fixed that, and he walked into the lush and enormous office. The thing was bigger than the ground floor of his house. There was a large desk against the windows on one side, a bar on the other, an assortment of chairs and couches in the middle.

Marty walked over to the computer on the desk, a strange flat screened one he'd never seen before. Computers in his time were small and bulky. This one had a screen bigger than his TV and displayed so many colours it nearly made his eyes hurt at first.

He didn't really know what he was looking for, but as he started clicking on things he eventually found a search option.

"Okay, let's see…" he typed in "robot," but that returned too many results, so he decided to add "time travel," but that returned nothing.

After a second he just wrote "time travel" and left it at that. He got four results. The first file was about Doc Brown. It was an article about an eccentric scientist going missing after rumours of working with a terrorist organization. Marty cringed at the memory, then closed the file.

So the company was interested in Emmett Brown, which as far as Marty was concerned could only mean they were interested in time travel. But how exactly had the company found out about the Doc's little hobby?

He opened the next file and got an unintelligible schematic. He pushed print, thinking at the very least the Doctor might be able to make something out of it. He folded up the printed pages and put them in his suit jacket.

The next file had his name in it.

It felt a little cold, reading the words. He wasn't entirely sure how to feel.

"Martin Seamus McFly – Deceased."

He was dead. He was dead?

He checked himself over, as though he would suddenly disappear or suddenly wake up in a coffin. Then he read the date: November 26th, 1985. There were numerous articles in the file, his school picture as well as pictures of his mother and father holding each other in tears.

"Local teens go missing."

"Search continues in vain."

"Teens met with demise?"

"No," he answered, but was too confused. He could understand them having files on the Doc, he was a known scientist and it was possible he mentioned working on time travel to someone else and this information got back to them – but what interest could they possibly have in him? Never mind why they thought he was dead – although it horrified him to realize after leaving with the Doctor he never came back – why did some company 30 years after the fact care?

Something clicked in his head, something he had always been too stressed or scared in any given moment to put together.

"_Prime subject acquired_," the robot had said in the time loop. There was something else, too, something the Sylcrat had said as they had tied him down and were getting ready to cut him to pieces.

"_Not like the others,"_ they had said. _"You're human, but… there's something off about you."_

What did they mean? What did any of this mean?

He opened the last file, this one titled surveillance, and found a treasure trove of candid pictures of his family. His mother, father, older brother and sister. The company was keeping tabs on them. He read a few lines, but stopped when he saw the word "divorce."

His mother and father had gotten divorced, and he knew it had to do with him going missing. He wrote down his mother's home address, his father's nowhere to be found, and got up to leave. He didn't care if there was more information he might find there, this was his life, and he needed to figure out how to fix it.

OOO

Her house was run down and little more than a glorified garage. The mailbox said Baines and Marty realized his mother hadn't even kept his father's name. He nearly pushed the doorbell, but then he realized he didn't know what to say.

"Hey mom, I'm back after thirty years – and I didn't age!"

What would she say? Well, she wouldn't believe it; that was for sure.

He saw someone moving in the window and ducked down. He couldn't resist the urge to look though. He wanted to get out of the view of the road and walked around to the side of the house along the driveway. The small kitchen window was there, though too high to reach. He pulled up a garbage can and climbed up.

Lorraine was in the kitchen, sitting at a table and flipping through the pages of some magazine. A cigarette hung out of her parted lips and she was holding a glass with clear liquid and ice cubes in it. He didn't think it was water.

She looked sad, and lonely, and impossibly old. In that moment he didn't care what she might say, he wanted to go in there and tell her everything was going to be all right, tell her that while he might have still been figuring things out, he wouldn't rest until everything was fixed again.

She lifted her head, as though she heard something, and turned to him. Their eyes locked for a moment and Marty tried ducking down, but lost his footing and fell.

His head hit the pavement hard, and he blacked out.

**To Be Continued…**

(I love Lorraine, and all her variations, and sigh… she is also one of the people who never got any votes in my poll. Seriously, why do none of the characters I think actually have any merit get votes? Ah well.)


	4. Prototype

Back to the Doctor

Return to the Future Part 4

"Well," the Doctor coughed as they rode the elevator down to the basement, Mickey standing between him and Martha, all three of them diligently facing forward. "This is nice. Back together again-"

"Save it," Mickey held up his hand.

"Oh come off it," Martha reached out and took Mickey's hand in hers, giving it a squeeze and smiling at him. "You love it."

"Hey," he grinned back at her. "I love anything I get to do with you."

"Right…" the Doctor was relieved when the doors finally opened and they walked into the basement lab.

A lone scientist walked through the rows of desks, covered with glass vials and complicated machinery Mickey neither knew nor cared much about. He wasn't here for a sciency stuff, he was here for the trouble that always followed the sciency stuff.

"Uh, hello," the scientist looked up at them, he was a balding Asian man in his late 30s who looked like he had eaten one too many donuts. "Can I help you?"

"Surprise inspection," the Doctor held up his psychic paper.

The scientist came forward, quickly reading over his imaginary credentials, slightly narrowing his eyes first, and then nodding.

"Inspectors love taking people off guard, don't they?"

"It makes everyone's life easier," the Doctor read over his nametag. "Can you answer a few questions for us, Dr. Yeong?"

"Sure," Dr. Yeong held out his hand for the Doctor to shake.

"Right, I need you to show all the files on any projects you've been working on this past month to Doctor Smith here while I take care of the questions."

"And, uh, you are?" Alan walked over to a computer and started typing something in.

"Doctor Smith."

"Oh… you two are…?" A file opened on the computer

"No," Mickey interjected. "We are. Her and I, that is."

"Great, a visit from three Doctor Smiths," Alan pointed to the screen. "This is everything from the past month, except for the top secret stuff of course."

"I'm not a Doctor," Mickey said as Martha went to the computer. "I'm an agent, Agent Smith."

"… You're kidding."

"Anyway Alan," the Doctor put his arm around Alan's shoulders and started steering him away. "We've heard some things at our – uh – agency that have left us a little worried."

"Worried?" Alan kept trying to look back at what Martha was typing into the computer, but the Doctor kept leading him farther and farther away.

"Oh you know, this whole robot business."

"I'm afraid you'll have to be a little more detailed than that. This is Morton _Robotics_ after all."

"Of course, of course," the Doctor stopped and quickly turned to stare the scientist down. "But you know which one I'm talking about."

"Well, I, uh…" Alan looked away awkwardly, then glared at him. "Hey, listen. You don't have the clearance to know about that."

"But I know about it anyway. Strange universe we live in."

"I'm not project leader on… _that_. I'm not the person you want to be asking questions."

"Alan, Alan, Alan! You're the exact person I want to be asking questions."

"Why?"

"Because you're in, and we're not coming back tomorrow," the Doctor grinned. "So, do the words 'time travel' mean anything to you?"

Alan swallowed. "Of course, science fiction stuff."

"No one's every talked about it around here?"

"Well sure, it's an interesting topic – but it isn't reality."

"Yet."

"What?"

"I know more than you think."

"Then why ask me any questions?"

"I have all the pieces, I just need the instructions to put them together. Alan," the Doctor put his hands on his shoulders, "we're the good guys. We just want to make sure nothing goes wrong here."

Alan looked uncomfortable for a moment, then slowly nodded. "I meant what I said. I'm not project leader. I don't have a lot of the answers."

He started walking away from the Doctor towards the wall, and when he reached it he swiped his ID over a card reader and a hidden door opened in the wall, leading to a smaller lab.

"We've nicknamed it Arnold," the scientist smirked as both of them turned to look at the figure lying on a table.

It was a robot, half assembled and crudely made. It bore a passing resemblance to the robot tracking down time travellers, but this prototype was a bulkier far cry from the kind of science and robotics used to make its far superior descendant.

"Not very far along, is it," the Doctor went to grab his sonic screwdriver, remembered he gave it to Marty, and instead picked up some papers on the table and started reading them.

"Well, this project's still in its infancy. They've got a long way to go before they reach where they're headed."

"Yeah, and where's that?"

"You said it yourself: time travel."

OOO

"What are we looking for, babe?" Mickey asked once the Doctor was finally out of earshot.

"It's hard to tell," she slyly looked over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't being watched, then took a flash-drive out of her pocket and inserted it into the computer. "Our best bet is to take what we can and let the Doctor go over it later. Damn firewalls…"

The computer screen was flashing a warning message about entering secure files, but with some fast typing from Martha the computer finally calmed down and began downloading its hard-drive.

"Why do you have to act that way around him?"

"What way?" She looked at him in confusion.

"Like he's the only man in the world who matters."

"Mickey," she reached up and grabbed his collar. "I'm just happy to see him. You know what he means to me – to us. We never would have met if it weren't for him."

"I know, I know… I just need to know that he doesn't mean more to you than _me_."

Martha gave a soft laugh and leaned in to kiss him, just as the download was finished.

"Martha! Mickey! I need you!" The Doctor called out to them, waving his arm through the doorway.

Mickey rolled his eyes, but followed the smiling Martha – who quickly grabbed the flash drive and threw it in her pocket – to the room containing the robot prototype.

"Is that it?" Mickey looked at the robot, feeling slightly uncomfortable. He didn't know if he wanted to mess with something that even the Doctor was having trouble with.

"That's just the unfinished prototype," Alan tilted his head towards another door. "We keep the finished one over there."

"Sorry, finished?" Mickey felt his hand reaching for his gun.

"We'll get to that in a moment. You think you can send a robot through time?" The Doctor asked cautiously.

"I don't know the details, but essentially the thought is that sending a human through time would kill them, whereas a robot can't die."

"Can't you just send them in a capsule or something?" Martha asked.

Alan just shrugged. "We weren't told to build a capsule, we were told to build a robot."

"Show us the complete prototype."

Alan looked uneasy. "Can I see your ID again?"

"Of course," the Doctor held out the psychic paper again. Alan still didn't look convinced, but he walked over to the other door nonetheless, and with a swipe of his card opened it.

The finished version of the robot lying on the table stood inside a space the size of the closet, and as the Doctor stepped up to it, its red eyes slowly came on, and in a scratchy, inhuman, voice it began to speak.

"Time traveller detected."

**To Be Continued…**

(According to my incredible math skills, I've deduced that we've just gotten over the halfway hump. What a relief! It's nice to know that the bulk of the work is behind me, but my loyal reviewers need to make sure I don't get lazy from this point on. Don't be afraid to hound – or encourage – me to make regular updates. For now you don't have to worry, we still have three more chapters to go before I take another break. As for the Doctor Smith bit, I wasn't entirely sure if Martha took Mickey's last name as her own, but I thought it was a cute enough gag to throw that in.)


	5. Mother

Back to the Doctor

Return to the Future Part 5

"I know what you're thinking, but it isn't him."

Marty could hear the man's voice somewhere in the distance, but it was hard to concentrate over his headache.

"I know that, you think I don't know that?" An old lady replied. "I'm not so senile that… but he needed help anyway! Should I have left him in the driveway?"

Both the voices sounded familiar, but strange all at the same time, and he couldn't place either of them.

"If you're so worried, then call an ambulance, but get him out of your house, mom!" A door slammed somewhere, then everything went quiet.

Marty started drifting off again, the pounding in his head trying to drag him down into unconsciousness.

"It's going to be all right," the woman spoke again, and he felt something cold on his head. A cloth?

His eyes fluttered open and he saw the familiar silhouette and closed his eyes again. It was his mom, holding a cold cloth to his forehead, just like she used to when he was sick. Was he sick? He felt like he was wading through memories, trying to figure out what order they were supposed to be in.

"I had a really weird dream mom…" he started whispering and he felt the figure next to him go stiff.

His eyes snapped open as he suddenly realized when and where this was. This was his mother, but she didn't – couldn't – know that he was her son. He quickly sat up, ignoring the pain in his head and started at her with wide frantic eyes.

"I'm sorry-I-I-"

"You hit your head," she answered slowly, her watery eyes looking him over apprehensively.

"My head? I fell."

"You were spying."

"Uh…" He tried looking around for an escape. Could he just push her aside and jump out the window?

"My son helped me carry you in the house – though he thinks we should have left you. Why were you spying?"

"I was… it was… a dare," he finally squeaked.

She stared at him, making him feel uncomfortable enough to look away. She shook her head.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to stare, but you look _just_ like him."

"… Like who?"

"My… son," she smiled sadly and stood up. It was a struggle for her to stand up and stretch out her bones. "Not the one who was just here, my youngest son. He… well it doesn't matter."

"No… tell me," he sat back in the bed, feeling slightly less panicky. Maybe he could still get some information after all.

"He went missing, oh, nearly thirty years ago now. I never knew what happened. George, my ex-husband, he wanted to accept his death and move on. But I…" she smiled at him sadly. "I just couldn't accept that my little boy was dead. Sometimes I still think he's out there."

"Maybe he is."

Lorraine looked at him strangely.

"I mean," he looked around nervously. "If you never heard any different. He might be alive, I mean… I dunno."

She sat down on a chair next to the window. "George kept saying, if he was alive he'd contact us, but he never did… so to George that meant he _had_ to be dead."

"Nobody knew anything? Friends? … Girlfriends?"

She narrowed her eyes. "His girlfriend went missing the same day. I used to think maybe they had eloped. But I… I don't think I want to talk about this now. I'm sorry I brought it up."

"No, I'm sorry," he looked away. "I shouldn't have pried. I should go."

"You can stay until you're feeling better."

He remembered the Doctor, who would probably be wondering where he had disappeared to by now as well.

"I'm fine," he stood up too quickly and his head swam, for a moment he thought he might fall down and Lorraine must have had the same thought, because she was quickly on her feet to catch him.

She looked at him, confused, and in that moment Marty reached out and hugged her as hard as he dared, worried that he might hurt her frail body.

"I'm sorry you lost your son, but I'm sure, wherever he is, he appreciates the fact that you never gave up… I know I would."

"I…"

Marty pulled away and ran to the door, not bothering to look back. "I'm sorry if I was any trouble!"

"No… no trouble…" Lorraine sat down, feeling weak and utterly drained. It was like a ghost had just run through her life.

**To Be Continued…**

(Well, I couldn't not have the iconic "Marty hits his head and wakes up with Lorraine hovering over him" scene – and by golly I might do it again. Oh time travel is fun… I worried going into this chapter that people would be annoyed that I left Martha, Mickey and the Doctor facing off a robot, but I just couldn't resist the chance to explore Marty's relationship with his mother, which is complicated… to put it mildly. In fact, I liked writing this chapter so much I wrote this chapter before chapter four. Who needs robots when I have a mother and son to write about!)


	6. Failsafe

Back to the Doctor

Return to the Future Part 6

As the robot reached towards the Doctor in an effort to grab – or strangle – him, he realized the prototype didn't have the same weapon that could suck the time energy out of him. This did not mean he didn't have a different weapon that could do this, so the Doctor quickly dodged and rolled out of the way as Mickey reached for a gun and opened fire.

"Wait! Stop!" Alan ran towards a button on the wall next to the door, frantically pushing it.

The robot stared at Alan curiously, then batted him away with a hand, sending Alan flying across the room where he crumpled up and passed out.

This robot wasn't immune to bullets. It stumbled backwards as Mickey continuing firing, moving towards the robot with every shot, backing it into the closet once more. Martha ran over to Alan, checking on him.

"The failsafe," Alan muttered, blood pouring down his forehead from where his head impacted with the wall. "The failsafe should have shut him down."

The robot, perhaps feeling cornered or perhaps needing to escape before Mickey's gun did it in for good, suddenly crouched down and punched a hole into the floor, then jumped down it and disappeared.

Mickey ran to the hole, emptying his magazine down it, but the robot was already gone.

"Well," the Doctor climbed back to his feet. "We're definitely in the right place."

"Did that robot call you time travellers?" Alan's eyes kept wandering and Martha thought he might have a concussion.

"He needs a Doctor."

"You are a Doctor," the Doctor crouched down next to them, looking Alan in the eye.

"Is there another way to shut that robot down? Another failsafe?"

"I-I don't know. I'm not working on this project! Why would we even need more than two failsafes?"

"You didn't fink some killer robot might need more than one failsafe?" Mickey asked, holstering his gun after he had reloaded it.

"Killer?" Alan was starting to look slightly more coherent, he managed to get himself into a sitting position. "No one built that thing to kill."

"Oh? So that bloody robot didn't just try to take your fat head off?"

"I…" he rubbed his eyes. "I don't know what just happened. That _shouldn't_ have happened… Is this why there was some concern over this project?"

"Among other things." The Doctor sighed.

Alan's eyes suddenly widened. "Where did it go?"

"It ran off through the floor," Mickey explained.

"There's a malfunctioning robot on the loose. We need to call the cops, the firemen – to evacuate the building."

"He's not wrong about that last part," Martha saw a bright red fire alarm hanging on the wall. "We need to get everyone out of this building. Shouldn't be too hard on a Sunday."

"Right," the Doctor walked over to the glass covered alarm, bringing up his elbow to smash it and then pulling it so a high pitched whine suddenly filled the building. He turned back to Alan, hoping Marty had enough sense to get out if he hadn't already. "Get out of here, and make sure anyone you meet gets out as well."

"What about you?" Alan asked as Martha helped him to his feet.

"We're going to take care of your technical problems today Doctor Yeong. A little two-fore-one deal we have this weekend."

OOO

They ran down the stairs, the Doctor leading, slipping on his red and blue 3-D glasses.

"What are those for?" Martha asked as they threw open the door on the lower level and took a quick look around. No sign of the robot.

"The robots we met before gave off a rather distinct radiation signature. I'm hoping these robots do too – or at least give off a similar enough radiation signature so I can track it."

"Where do you think it went?" Mickey held his gun out apprehensively.

"It's not as durable as its descendants. Perhaps it's trying to repair the damage you did to it, or maybe it needed to recharge," he whipped off his glasses. "These are useless. No radiation anywhere."

"Should we split u-?"Martha turned the corner, stopping suddenly, as a metal body jumped out and slammed her into the ground.

"Martha!" The Doctor ran forward, but Mickey stepped in front of him, pulling out his gun and firing at the robot.

His bullet hit the robot right in the eye and its head snapped back, sparks and fire exploding from its socket. The robot tried to get up and run, but it stumbled and the Doctor managed to grab Martha and pull her away as Mickey kept firing into the robot as it tried to drag itself away.

"Is it dead?" Martha asked as the Doctor helped her to her feet. She looked shaken, but was otherwise unharmed.

Mickey reloaded his gun and kept it trained on the robot as it began to dig it hands into its own body, pulling out wires and reattaching them in an attempt to make some sort of repair. It looked up at Mickey, but made no attempt to move, its legs clearly no longer working.

"The robots I met would be ashamed if they knew this was their ancestor. Taken out by a silly little gun," the Doctor remarked.

"Little?" Mickey glared at the Doctor, who crouched down by the robot, looking over its wounds.

The robot tried saying something, but only static and ticks came out.

"Looks like you hit its voice box…" the Doctor dipped his fingers into some black liquid dripping from the robot, then lifted it to his face and smelled it, "and its battery cell. This thing can make all the repairs it wants, it'll be out of power in a few minutes anyway."

"Yeah, my _little_ gun took out your big bad robot, didn't it?"

"It's just a prototype. It's bark's bigger than its bite."

Mickey rolled his eyes.

"What do we do with it?" Martha interrupted.

The Doctor scratched his head, thinking. "We need to destroy this," he motioned around the hall, "all of this."

"You mean, destroy the building?"

"This robot's not much of a threat, but believe me when I say the ones you humans build in the future certainly are."

"Hey, don't lump all us humans together."

"Well maybe if you didn't all seem to want to build robots that inevitably do more bad than good – I wouldn't be so quick to judge."

"Boys," Martha cleared her throat. "Settle down. Doctor? How do you propose we destroy this place?"

"Well," he stood up, "we need to make sure none of their data survives."

"Except for this, right?" She pulled out the flash drive.

"Yes," the Doctor grabbed it with a wink. "I'll take that."

"So… like a virus or something?" Mickey suggested.

"Or a fire…"

"A fire?" Martha's eyes widened.

"No, fire brigade's already on their way. We need something more dramatic."

"An explosion?" Mickey said with a slight hint of sarcasm.

"Oh yes Mickey. Now we're on to something."

OOO

They ran back to the robot lying on the table.

"We need a large mass of energy. Thanks to Mickey, our friend the finished prototype has been drained of anything useful," the Doctor explained as they ran.

"Oh, sorry. Next time I'll let the evil robot kill you."

"You think the other robot has a power cell?" Martha ignored her husband.

"Only one way to find out!" They entered the room and the Doctor immediately started pulling out wires and bits of the robot until he uncovered a large, thin blue rectangle.

"Is that it?" Mickey asked.

"Mickey," the Doctor handed a long wire to him. "Take this, jump down that hole, and connect it to the other robot."

"You what?"

"Now, Mickey."

"Fine," Mickey grabbed the wire. "But you need to start treating me with respect."

Mickey ran to the hole, and with a bit more care than the robot had shown, jumped down.

"What will that do?" Martha watched Mickey go.

"Get rid of him. He was giving me a headache."

Martha grinned at the Doctor. "You be nice."

The Doctor smiled at her. "I'm always nice. Ah…"

"What?"

"Well, I can't rig a timer."

"That's not good."

"It'll be fine. We just have to run fast," the Doctor smiled.

"What about Mickey?"

"We'll meet him in the stairwell. Alons-y!" The Doctor flipped a switch in the robot, then grabbed Martha's hand and started running.

They reached the stairs just as Mickey opened the door.

"Hey, I didn't know where to attach the wire, so I-"

"Doesn't matter. Run!"

Mickey immediately took off after them, climbing up the stairs, praying the explosion wouldn't go off too soon.

They reached the ground floor, made their way into the lobby, where they saw Alan at the door, screaming at firefighters to stay away because of a "killer robot." Medics were surrounding him, trying to get him to calm down.

"Run!" Martha called as they threw open the doors.

"There's a bomb!" The Doctor yelled.

The firefighters started backing away as the three of them made their way outside. Dozens of people started yelling and running away from the building, the fear of a bomb enough to make anyone try to get away.

And then, the explosion went off.

**To Be Continued…**

(We have, unbelievably so, reached the halfway point – I know I said that before, but hear me out. That was the halfway point if you're going by episodes, this is the literal halfway point if you count actual chapters, and if you're halfway decent with math you can figure out the sheer cleverness of my chapter count. I don't really know if I thought I'd get this far when I decided to start writing this fic, I certainly didn't think I'd get here so fast – especially when my estimation of how many chapters I would be writing back in Episode One was so… understated. Well, with six more episodes – plus one chapter – to go, I'm feeling pretty confident that I will finish this "great" saga before the year's end. Mickey saying "fink" at one point is not a typo, but my attempt to capture the London accent – which I assumed would come out when he's stressed. Plus, I just love saying fink. I fink therefore I am.)


	7. Martha, My Dear

Back to the Doctor

Return to the Future Part 7

Marty came around the corner just as the building suddenly shattered, throwing him back with the force of the explosion as millions of pieces of glass rained down like rhinestones.

He sat up, his eyes wide with horror, as he scanned the panicked faces of the people around him. Where was the Doctor? Or Martha and Mickey? Had they set off the explosion? Or had they been trapped in it?

No, he saw the three figures making their way through the panicked crowd. No one was paying any attention to them, the chaos of the fire that now burned the metal skeleton of the building having their full attention.

Marty ran against the crowd towards them "What did you do!"

"What!" Mickey asked, cocking his head slightly as though he couldn't hear right.

"Jesus Doc, explosions seem to just follow you!"

"I'll explain everything in the TARDIS, right now we should get away from here before anyone starts asking questions."

Martha saw the security guard from earlier talking with police. He looked in their direction as recognition crossed his face. "The sooner the better."

They didn't run, they walked at the same pace as everyone else, trying to avoid suspicion, and when they finally reached the town square, the crowd having dispersed in every direction, they jumped into the TARDIS.

"I leave you alone and you blow up half my town," Marty sighed and sat down next to the consol.

"Don't exaggerate," the Doctor ran up to the consol, plugging the flash drive in. "No one will miss one building."

"It's a small town!"

"I don't get it," Mickey shrugged.

"What?" Martha looked at him.

"If we destroyed the company and the robots and all that stuff, why's she still asleep?"

"She's not asleep," the Doctor explained.

"Whatever. She's not awake, is she? So you didn't stop anything from happening if it's still happened."

"He has a disturbingly good point," Marty frowned.

"All right, all right, so maybe we didn't do everything we set out to do this morning, but it wasn't all for nothing, look," he pointed to a screen on the consol and Marty frowned. He couldn't understand half the terms or what any of the numbers meant. Martha nodded as she read, but Mickey looked just as confused as Marty.

"What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?"

"This is everything Morton Robotics has been working on since they started."

"Oh!" Marty reached in his pocket, pulling out the papers he had printed out, and handed then to the Doctor. "I found these. Thought you might be able to figure them out."

"Marty," the Doctor grinned at him. "You really are getting the hang of all this. Find out anything else?"

"Well," the files on him and Doc Brown, meeting with his mother, how the company had been specifically searching for him this whole time. "No."

"No worries, we'll get answers from what we've found here," the Doctor smiled reassuringly. "They obviously have a second building-"

"Or factory," Martha reminded him. "We're positive they have one. We just can't find any clues as to where it is."

"Well we can't stick around and help you find it," Mickey said quickly.

"We can't?"

"You can't?" The Doctor looked slightly crestfallen.

"Nah, we got our own life now, don't we? Morton Robotics isn't the only problem we have down here on earth. There's loads of stuff UNIT is currently dealing with."

Martha sighed. "That's true. To be honest, it would be best if we just handed Morton Robotics to you so we could concentrate on everything else on our plate."

"Ah, well, of course," the Doctor turned back to the consol. "That makes sense. I mean, I didn't expect you two to come back aboard or anything."

"Doctor," Martha walked up to his, taking his hand in hers. "Thank you though. It's been so good seeing you again, going on one last adventure with you.

The Doctor squeezed her hand and turned back to her. "Who said anything about last? Surely there's always some adventure around the corner."

"Well, don't be a stranger then. Call us anytime you see help."

Mickey was about to say something, but Martha shot him a little glare.

"_Any_ time."

Mickey sighed. "Yeah, any time Doctor. You do liven things up a bit."

"Do you two need a lift anywhere? Back to UNIT headquarters?" The Doctor offered.

"Nah, somebody uncovered what they think is a UFO in some mine outside of town. We figured we'd kill two birds with one stone and check it out after we helped you two."

"UFO in some mine?" Marty raised his eyebrows.

"Don't suppose you know anything about it?" Martha laughed.

"I know it doesn't pose a threat anymore," Marty grinned.

"Goodbye Doctor," Martha went up on her tiptoes, giving the Doctor a quick peck on the cheek. "And good luck."

"All right, all right," Mickey took Martha's hand, eager to pull her away from the Doctor. "Be seeing you then."

"Take care of her Mickey," the Doctor said.

"Always," Mickey smiled at Martha.

"Nice meeting you both," Marty waved as the two nodded at him and made their way out of the TARDIS. Marty turned back to the Doctor, who was still staring at the door. Suddenly, the Doctor looked at Marty.

"Where'd you go when you left?"

"Huh?"

"Well you were walking back from somewhere."

"Yeah, the square. I heard the explosion…"

"That fast?"

Marty shrugged. "I dunno. I wasn't buying any sports almanacs if that's what you want to know."

"Well, not really… Though I'm glad you weren't. It just seems like… something's troubling your mind."

"I'm fine. I'm just… still figuring things out."

**To Be Continued in Episode Eight: Hit the Road Jack!**

(Well, it's always fun to release a rush of chapters at once, but it also takes a lot of work and I hope you'll understand if I don't do something like that again for awhile. I'm not certain yet if I want to get back to scheduling myself, I don't think it was very conducive to my creativity. Just keep checking my wordpress account (doctormcfly) for updates. The website is on my profile page if you're having trouble finding it. I post photos, videos and updates on the fic there, so be sure to check it out to find out when the next episode will be hitting the web.)


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